Text messages exchanged by Miami Dolphins rookie Laremy Tunsil and Ole Miss officials have been confirmed by the school, which, according to ESPN, is still trying to determine whether they were altered before being published.
The texts were part of two social-media incidents that caused Tunsil to tumble to the 13th overall pick in last month’s NFL draft. The first incident was a tweet of a video of Tunsil smoking while wearing a gas-mask/bong. The longer texts were screenshots posted to Tunsil’s Instagram account, which has been deleted, and were conversations that occurred in February and April 2015.
In them, Tunsil allegedly asks Ole Miss assistant athletic director John Miller for money to pay rent and his mother’s $305 utility bill. Miller’s answer was to “See Barney next week.” That appears to be a reference to Barney Farrar, the school’s assistant athletic director for high school and junior-college relations.
In an interview with ESPN’s Joe Schad, Farrar said Tunsil did not ask for money and that he has not given him any.
In a news conference after the draft on April 28, Tunsil admitted to taking money from an Ole Miss coach. “I’d have to say yeah,” he told reporters.
Ole Miss, which has been under investigation by the NCAA since January, released a statement on April 28 in which it said: “Like we do whenever an allegation is brought to our attention or a potential violation is self-discovered, we will aggressively investigate and fully cooperate with the NCAA and the SEC.”
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